Like most of you, whether it is a family photo album or precious family tree research, I back up, back up, back up. Now I'm going to add another feature to my back-ups - a date of purchase written right on the CD and an annual reminder on the calendar to check for reburning needs. Why? CD life is 2 to 5 years according to folks more knowledgeable than I..... From http://computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/storage/story/0,10801,107607,00.html "Unlike pressed original CDs, burned CDs have a relatively short life span of between two to five years, depending on the quality of the CD," Gerecke said in an interview this week. "There are a few things you can do to extend the life of a burned CD, like keeping the disc in a cool, dark space, but not a whole lot more." The problem is material degradation. Optical discs commonly used for burning, such as CD-R and CD-RW, have a recording surface consisting of a layer of dye that can be modified by heat to store data. The degradation process can result in the data "shifting" on the surface and thus becoming unreadable to the laser beam. "Many of the cheap burnable CDs available at discount stores have a life span of around two years," Gerecke said. "Some of the better-quality discs offer a longer life span, of a maximum of five years." Check out the website for the more complete article. (Thanks to source Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter) Cheerio Sue Visser